Although my birth experience 23 years ago was not traumatic, there was one incident that gave me,a non-medic,an insight into the culture of the NHS. I knew I needed an anti-D injection because of my O negative blood group. Several hours after the birth, a nurse administered the injection. The following day, I was offered another and explained that I had already had one. On the third day, the same thing happened. To this day, I do not know if two or more anti-D injections would be harmful, or whether women are still offered multiple injections after birth.
Once I was back home, I wrote to the head of midwifery, stressing that my letter was not a complaint and outlining what had happened. It included a suggestion that a cross be put through the note on the front of the patient record once the injection had been given. Two days later, I received a letter that included a complaint number and a contact name. The same day, I phoned the contact to ask for my case to be removed from the complaints system as I had explicitly said it was not a complaint. She told me that she knew there was a new complaints procedure but that no-one had told her she was a contact.
After several months of to-ing and fro-ing, I was offered a slot in a patient focus group, which I declined, having a small baby to look after at the time.
The two things I concluded from this: a) simple, cost-free solutions are of no interest to the NHS; b) continuous improvement is not embedded into the collective psyche of the NHS. The traumatic cases of childbirth described in this thread suggest the second of these still the case, and that the first instinct of those dealing with feedback or complaints is to avoid anything might hint at liability. OP is to be commended for her persistence. One motive of those of us who do is that others will benefit but we are fighting an uphill battle.